Rolfs Winter league 2 - Match 4

Well its Match 4 in the league today and the forecast looks ok with a dry and mild day forecast with no frost So I was a bit surprised to find the lake had risen 4 foot since last match and was right back over the platforms and half way up the bank again
This match I am fishing A section and I've come with a plan

A section are first to draw and the first peg out of the bag was peg 7 which left the rest of us drawing for the backing places in the section being last in the section last match meant I was last to draw and peg 40 was left in the bag and as I wanted any peg other than 36 or 37 I was quite happy

As Paul is missing again this match we have Rob Kite fishing for us and he was fishing B section but unfortunately he drew peg 10 not the best of draws

Steve had a slightly better draw with peg 14 on C section but the chances of Team JCS leaping off bottom slot with those draws is a bit slim to say the least

Peg 40 is right down the far end of the little lake and as the picture shows I'm having to sit right back up the bank and to the side of the platform

It's also a very noisy peg with traffic thundering past your back on the motorway

My plan of attack today was so cunning you could almost paint it tan and call it a fox

One of the main problems I am having at Rolfs is I am finding it very hard to come and not fish for the Carp because tbh it dosen't make sense to come to a big Carp Mecca and fish for tiny silvers when you know every peg can throw up 300lb + weights of Carp

But as I knew I was in the little lake this week my plan was to forget about the Carp totally and just fish for slivers (unless I drew peg 7 of course) so with that in mind I made up some light rigs to fish for silvers and put some new no5 elastic in a couple of my match top 3's and the plan was to fish single red maggot over groundbait and catch Roach and hopefully draw some skimmers in too

For ground bait I am using a 50/50 mix of Sensas Roach 3000 and Crushed Hemp and I planned to fish it straight out in front at 11.5m

I also decided to give it an hour on the feeder with bread flake on the hook just in case I could snag a Carp

When Rolf sounded the whistle to start I cupped 2 large balls of ground bait and a hand full of maggots out to 11.5m then chucked a feeder full of white crumb with a lump of bread flake on the hook over into the bay to my right

After about an hour to trying to catch a Carp I gave up on he feeder as watching around the little lake no one was catching any Carp with the exception of peg 7

So I swapped over to my 11.5m line and shipped a single red maggot out and dropped it in over the top of my groundbait after a few seconds the float dipped and I had a little Roach in the net from then on I had almost a fish a chuck for the next hour or so they were only small Roach but they were keen

Looking around the section I could see that peg 7 was running away with the points as expected but no one else was catching except peg 37 who had had a couple of decent net skimmers and I reckoned that my haul of little Roach were keeping me level with him

In the next hour peg 2 had 3 or 4 decent skimmers and peg 37 had 3 more net fish peg 36 had started to catch small Roach and I continued to catch small Roach with a few larger Chubblets starting to make an appearance

In the last hour I reckoned that I had done enough to take second in the section When

Ernie on peg 36 hooked and landed a 3lb+ Perch and the guy on peg 37 had 2 more net skimmers

I continued to catch right up to the whistle but not having a net fish all day I suspected that both pegs 36 and 37 had beaten me

My catch certainly wasn't going to win me any prizes but I must admit I did enjoy the fishing

The weigh station behind peg 2 word of warning not a good idea to put your rod bag on the fence like this because if Rolf spots it you will be going home early!

I soon had my gear packed away and back in the van then it was off round the lake to help with the weigh in

A section was first to weigh in and peg 34 had had a nightmare and ended up with 4drms peg 36 had 6lb 14oz and peg 37 had 5lb 10oz then it was me to weigh and as I tipped my net I was surprised by just how many fish I had and even more surprised when they weighed 5lb 10oz peg 2 was next and he had 3lb peg 4 managed 1lb 14oz and peg 7 stole the section with 20lb 8oz

Best weight on B section was 50lb from peg 28 and the best weights on the day came from C section with pegs 17,18,23 and 24 all catching well but the winner on the day was Mick Lane on peg 23 with 115lb

My 5lb 10oz gave me joint 3rd in section and 5 points Rob had 7lb 14oz from peg 10 for last in section and 1 point and Steve had 12lb 13oz from peg 14 for joint 5th in section and 3 points giving Team JCS 9 points today and still bottom of the table

But it was still an enjoyable day and we are still in with a chance of sneaking past the Thame Tackle guys in the last 2 matches